This invention relates to a dispenser and dispenser method of dispensing multiple rolls of flexible web material where the material on each roll is wound on a readily deformable hollow core with core spindles projecting from the opposite ends of the core, the spindles being supported by cradles provided in the dispenser. More particularly the upper portions of the opposite ends of the core have axial forces applied thereto tending to collapse the core when the web material is exhausted from the roll.
There are many examples of toilet tissue dispensers in the prior art, reflecting a wide variety of efforts to dispense web material from dispensers capable of handling single or multiple rolls of the material. In commercial applications of these prior art dispensers varying degrees of acceptance have occurred.
Rolls of toilet tissue to be handled in these dispensers usually have the web material wound onto a cylindrical tubular core, more frequently a one piece tubular core. In some instances, a roll core support spindle is inserted in each end of this tubular hollow core so as to provide core supports projecting outwardly from each end of the roll of flexible web material. Jespersen U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,600 may be noted as exemplifying a dispenser for multiple rolls where the web material is wound on a one-piece tubular core.
In a number of the prior art dispenser concepts where the roll is to have a one-piece tubular hollow core it is contemplated that the core is to drop out of the dispenser when the web material is substantially exhausted. In these dispensers, a reserve roll within a multiple roll dispenser has been moving down on its own roll core support spindles, guidingly received in opposed tracks. This reserve roll has been resting on the lower roll during tissue dispensing from such lower roll and thus the reserve roll follows the lower roll into the dispensing position when the hollow core drops out.
With these web dispensing concepts as described above, there nearly always is some toilet tissue in the form of the web material remaining on the hollow roll core when it finally drops out of the dispenser. This not only involves a needless waste of toilet paper, but can contribute to jamming of the dispenser in the event that the core does not fully disengage from the dispenser when the toilet paper is nearly exhausted from the core. This is particularly true in a dispenser for rolls employing structurally rigid internal supporting hollow cores such as disclosed in the Jespersen U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,600.
Multiple roll dispensers for wound flexible material such as toilet tissues have also been proposed in the prior art wherein the respective rolls in the dispensing and reserve positions within the dispenser are maintained out of contact. In other words, the reserve roll is not resting on the lower roll during dispensing of web material from the lower roll. Frequently this type dispenser has a lever system interengaged between the two rolls, the lever system serving to hold the upper roll in a reserve position until the lever sensing that the roll in the dispensing position is almost or fully exhausted of toilet tissue, or that the roll support spindle or mandrel has fallen out of the dispensing position. In these lever control systems for multiple roll dispensers, the core or spindle on the lower roll in dispensing position is either fully discharged from the dispensing position before release of the reserve roll or a rigid spindle or mandrel is involved which is manually displaced while kept captive in the dispenser to effect release of the reserve roll.
Jespersen U.S. Pat. No. 3,770,222 may be noted as exemplifying the type multiple roll dispenser where the reserve roll is maintained by a lever system in the upper part of the dispenser cabinet out of contact with the roll from which toilet tissue is being dispensed. In the dispenser of this patent, the core on its support spindles is either completely dropped out of the cabinet before release of the lever for the reserve roll to drop into the dispensing position or the spindle is captured in a discard pocket within the dispenser cabinet before the reserve roll is able to be released to move to dispensing position.
Unfortunately, toilet tissue dispensers to handle multiple rolls found in the prior art have been characterized by a number of drawbacks and disadvantages. Where the reserve roll rides upon the lower roll from which toilet tissue material is being dispensed, both of these rolls tend to be turned as the paper is dispensed. Inasmuch as toilet tissue rolls often become slightly telescoped during their shipment, thereby increasing their overall roll length as compared with a squarely round roll, excessive friction and drag is created when the slightly telescoped reserve roll turns and rubs against the side plates of the dispenser cabinet.
In other multiple roll dispensers where the roll that is in use is dropped from the dispenser when web material is substantially exhausted from the roll in the dispensing position, unused toilet tissue still remains on the roll core, thus creating a waste of such tissue. Other roll dispensers require complicated and costly mechanisms to transfer the reserve roll to the dispensing position once the core or spindle for the roll in dispensing position has been discharged from such dispensing position. The instant invention seeks to solve the above mentioned and other disadvantages found in prior art tissue dispensers.